Jury awards $10M to former officer who accused National City police of discrimination, harassment
The damages amount to almost a third of the department’s budget, and nearly 15 percent of the city’s general fund.
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
A San Diego County jury has awarded a former National City police officer $10 million in damages after she said the department sexually harassed, discriminated against and retaliated against her and tolerated a hostile work environment.
Jurors agreed that Ashley Cummins was singled out for abuse by several National City Police Department workers and that senior commanders did little to stop the abuse.
The lawsuit and subsequent trial portrayed the department as a small-town agency rife with sexual harassment against women, and a command staff unwilling to enforce anti-discrimination policies or punish even repeat offenders.
The monetary damages awarded to Cummins amount to almost one-third of the National City Police Department’s $33 million budget, and nearly 15% of the city’s entire general fund.
It also comes at a time when the City Council is confronting a multimillion-dollar budget deficit — and a state bar complaint filed against City Attorney Barry Schultz. Details of the complaint, filed by a member of the City Council, have not been publicly disclosed.
Schultz declined to discuss the complaint but said the city strongly disagrees with the jury verdict.
“The City Council will be meeting in closed session (Tuesday) evening to discuss the verdict and will consider all legal options including appeal,” he said by email. “The city may have an additional statement after the closed session meeting.”
After a brief trial that concluded last week, the jury awarded Cummins a total of $10 million. The damages included about $166,000 in lost wages, $1.4 million in future economic losses and $4.2 million each in past and future non-economic losses.
“We always believed our client was wronged and had viable legal claims for sexual harassment and discrimination,” said her attorneys, Jeffrey Hogue and Tyler Belong, in a statement.
“Ultimately, we presented those legal claims to a jury to decide,” they said. “We are grateful the jury found for our client on all accounts and awarded a just verdict.”
Cummins joined the National City Police Department in 2018 after eight years with the St. Louis County Police Department, the largest police agency in the state of Missouri.
While working for the county department, Cummins served special assignments with federal task forces run by both the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration. She sought a position with National City for family reasons in 2018.
According to trial testimony and the lawsuit, Cummins is openly gay and began being harassed by fellow officers and some supervisors almost as soon as she arrived.
“The bullying and harassment were a result of the culture at NCPD that expected male officers to excel above female officers and expected female officers to be submissive to their male counterparts,” she said in her lawsuit.
“In fact, many of the male officers and supervisors indicated that if female officers wanted to fit in at NCPD, they either needed to be submissive to the male officers or sleep with them,” the complaint added.
Cummins complained on several occasions about the behavior exhibited by several officers, but nothing was done, the lawsuit alleged.
She was not the first woman to register concerns with the way she was treated by the agency, she said.
“At least one sergeant at NCPD has responded to a female officer’s discrimination complaint by saying ‘I’ve had a female officer file a complaint about me before’,” the lawsuit said. “‘Don’t be that cop. If you do that, you’ll be just another female cop who plays [the female card] because she can’t handle National City’.
“‘Things will just get worse for you if you do that’,” the sergeant added, according to the lawsuit.
In 2019, in response to a bullying and harassment complaint filed by another female police officer, a sergeant asked Cummins “if she had any dirt” on the complaining officer, the complaint added.
“As such, Ms. Cummins was discouraged and intimidated from making a formal report to IA (Internal Affairs),” the lawsuit said.
According to her lawsuit, the harassment grew so bad that fellow officers sometimes yelled at her over the police radio — or directed her to leave crime scenes. She alleged that at one point, another officer put Cummins in danger by failing to search a homicide suspect for weapons, breaking protocol, and not telling Cummins.
Cummins was singled out in other ways as well, according to her lawyers.
She was passed over for a promotion to a K-9 assignment, even though the male officer hired for the job had much less experience, and she was placed on leave after a shooting even though she was not involved in the confrontation, the lawsuit said.
“After she returned to work from her administrative leave, defendants made sure everyone stayed away from Ms. Cummins,” the lawsuit said.
The city is already facing a $5 million budget deficit, which prompted city leaders to implement a hiring freeze and a cap on departments’ operation and maintenance costs.
Councilmember Marcus Bush has been outspoken in his criticism of city expenses amid the budgetary shortfall, particularly out of the City Attorney’s Office.
At the March 18 City Council meeting, Bush raised concerns with his council colleagues about a request from Schultz to pay Devaney Pate Morris & Cameron LLP an additional $25,000 — the third request since January 2024 — for legal services regarding the San Diego Unified Port District.
Schultz, who previously worked for the firm, said its expertise has been vital for National City and that he provided Bush with invoices detailing the work.
But Bush said he could not support the city’s continuing use of the firm. He and Councilmember Luz Molina voted against the expense.
“From a budget standpoint and the fact that we do have a projected deficit, I want to be more mindful of how we’re paying these outside consultants and, particularly, when I think that our staff needs to be doing more to push this stuff,” Bush said.
Bush filed a complaint with the California State Bar against the city attorney. The council member declined to provide specifics about the complaint and the state bar declined to say whether it had received the claim.
In December, the city received an invoice from a downtown firm for more than $9,400 for work described only as “State Bar Complaint adverse Schultz. City Manager Benjamin Martinez approved the payment in January.
On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to vote on the expense. It also will consider paying an additional $50,000 to Schultz’s former law firm for its work on the Cummins litigation.
Cummins is now a mixed martial arts athlete who lives in Chula Vista and competes under the name Ashley “Smashley” Cummins. She also teaches part time at the police academy but says she has not been able to resume her law enforcement career.
“Ashley feels vindicated, and is overcome with emotion” as a result of the jury verdict, her attorneys said. “She has applied at many different police departments, but hasn’t gotten a job because of the lawsuit.”
5 Things to Do When a Neighbor Complains About Dog Barking
Are neighbors complaining about dog barking? Do NOT get defensive! The following are ways you can peacefully diffuse this potentially hostile situation.
By
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Published:February 23, 2011Updated:November 16, 2025
The natural thing to do when a neighbor complains about dog barking is to get defensive. “My dog? Causing a problem? How dare you?!”
Don’t go there. Defensiveness exacerbates hostilities, escalates tension, and encourages your neighbor to make a mountain out of what you perceive to be a molehill. Remember, it’s all about perception, and your neighbor’s perception is his reality. Instead of being defensive, try these things:
1. Listen intently to your neighbor’s complaint.
Unless one of you plans to move, defusing the situation beats all-out war. Set defensiveness aside, and listen to what your neighbor says. Assume there’s some nugget of truth to his complaint. You need to find it, so you can figure out what to do with it. He says your dog barks all the time, underneath his bedroom window, and wakes him up. That may be an exaggeration, but chances are your dog is barking some of the time, especially if you leave her out in the yard, or if she has free backyard access through a doggie-door.
2. Empathize and apologize for your dog barking.
Without admitting guilt, empathize with your complainer. “It must be frustrating to have to listen to barking dogs when you’re trying to sleep.” Be sincere. Tell him you’re sorry he’s being disturbed by barking. Reassure him that you don’t want your dog to be a nuisance, and you want to help find a solution to his concerns. Ask him to bear with you while you work on the problem. Bake him chocolate chip cookies.
3. Investigate your dog’s nuisance behavior.
Ask questions that won’t make your neighbor defensive. “Is there a time when it’s most annoying?” “Are there other dogs that are barking too?” “Other than giving up my dog, what would make you happy?” Set up a video camera or voice-activated tape recorder to document your dog’s activities when you aren’t home. Alternatively, take a day off and watch your own house from a distance, to see what goes on that might make your dog bark. Check the neighborhood to see if there are other dogs whose barking might be blamed on your dog. Ask other neighbors if they hear your dog, and if so, when and how much.
4. Respect all community dog laws.
Make sure your dog is currently licensed, and obey all local animal control laws. Maybe your neighbor is complaining because your dog runs loose and he feels threatened (even though you know your dog is a pussycat), or because you don’t clean up when you take her for walks. Those are legitimate grounds for complaint (as is excessive nuisance barking) even if your dog is a pussycat. You don’t want animal control to find you in violation of anything. Obey leash laws and scoop laws, and respect your neighbor’s discomfort with your dog – don’t let her off-leash even if you’re just walking out to your car. If she runs over to happily greet him, you’ll fuel the fires.
5. Take action to modify your dog’s behavior, and your own behavior.
Make changes to accommodate your neighbor and protect your dog. If his complaint is early-morning noise and she’s barking when you let her out at 6:00 am while you shower, alter your routine. Get up earlier and go out with her. Let her eliminate, then play with her. Keep her quietly occupied rather than leaving her to find her own entertainment. If it’s random throughout-the-day backyard barking while you’re away, bring her in and close the dog door. She doesn’t have to be outside all day. If things get ugly, leaving her out unattended exposes her to great risk from an irate neighbor. If necessary, pay someone to let her out for a noon potty break. If the complaint is about barking even when you are home, behavior modification is in order. (See “Modifying Your Dog’s Barking Behavior“.) If it’s something other than barking, determine how you can modify the situation to mitigate the problem. Some examples:
-Your dog charges the fence. Your neighbor fears for his children’s safety. Make the fence solid, or put up an inner fence so there’s an “airlock” between dog and kids. See, “Solve Fence Aggression with a Better Designed Dog Fence,” for more info on fencing.
-Your dog came over and attacked his dog. You think your dog was just playing, but whatever. Vow that your dog is never off her leash in your neighborhood. Even just walking to your car.
Keep your neighbor informed of your efforts to address his concerns. Document your actions in a journal in case you do have to face animal control. Ask your neighbor to let you know if he sees improvement – and document that. Save receipts for anything you buy to modify your dog’s environment. If you see your neighbor deliberately antagonizing your dog, document that with a video camera. Keep your dog safe. Be considerate. Keep baking chocolate chip cookies.
“Thought She Owned The Street”: 47 Times Neighbors Took Pettiness Too Far
Justin Sandberg and Ieva Pečiulytė
47
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“Good fences make good neighbors” is one of those lines that gets thrown around, but sometimes one has to deal with folks next door so entitled that it becomes pretty clear why anyone would want a fence (and perhaps a guard dog) in the first place.
Someone asked “What’s the most petty thing a neighbor has done to you?” and netizens described some of the worst neighbors they’ve ever dealt with. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote the truly pettiest and be sure to share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments section down below.
#1
Two years ago my husband and I had just bought our first house. I was so excited to finally have flower beds so I bought 5 purple tiger rose bushes and went out everyday to tend to them.
Our next door neighbor came over one day while I was watering my roses and decided to be a creeper. Asked if he could give me his number, started asking probing questions about my schedule like how long I was home alone, and kept hitting on me. I turned off the water and went inside, locked the door and called my husband because now there’s a strange man walking through my yard that knows I’m home alone and won’t accept my boundaries.
My husband came home and met the neighbor’s wife in the driveway to explain what happened and how the guy was out of line.
Didn’t see the guy again, but within days my roses started to shrivel up and die. I tried everything but I’m pretty sure he sprayed them with plant k****r.
Karma’s a b***h though because he got fired for sexually harassing a customer shortly after and his wife booted him out of the house.
Silaquix,Raymond Petrik/unsplashReport
Final score:
60
Mike F 4 months ago
Hahaha, hahaha!
16
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#2
Oooh this is my time to shine…
Had a neighbour who was old and had bipolar episodes.
My neighbour changed the locks on our communal door which only allowed access to our flat and her flat, yet refused to inform us that she changed the locks.
She then refused to answer the phone to us or let us in then called the police on my partner when he broke in for breaking and entering.
Also tried to get us to pay for the new keys…
Same neighbour called the police on me when I was in the bath. I don’t know what she said to the police but answering the door to armed police whilst in a towel was not fun. Her reasoning for calling the police is that she thought I was being attacked and wouldn’t answer the door when she knocked. I didn’t hear her knock and I was in the bath the whole time so unsure what exactly she heard.
Same neighbour also called the fire brigade to our property twice claiming we had purposely started a fire in our flat, both times my partner and I were at work and had to come home to check that there was in fact no fire.
We couldn’t get WiFi installed in our flat (top floor) but our neighbour (bottom floor could) could so we shared our the WiFi bill 50/50. Neighbour would turn the WiFi off if we pissed her off, if she went away for a few days, if she wanted to spite us. She would change the password and then demand more money from us to change it back. When she moved out we cleared out her flat and found letters from the internet company. She literally took our money but never paid the actual bill. I don’t know why they let her have internet for so long but alas.
Same neighbour filled up our own outside bin then called the council to complain we were overflowing our bin. The council believed her and provided an enforcement notice for causing waste in a communal area.
Also not petty but proves how much of a d**k she was: my partner asked our landlord for a private postbox as our post and takeaways kept getting stolen (from the building with only two flats in). Landlord said no because only us and the neighbour live here. Neighbour denied ever stealing our post and takeaways. Said neighbour was then arrested a week later for selling fraudulent tarot readings online but when the police arrested her they also found my partners bank card which we assumed just never got delivered and many other items that were addressed to us. Police did not prosecute because apparently could not prove that she actually stole them even though they were in her flat.
F**k you Jane.
satanchaps,Ceco Petrov/unsplashReport
Final score:
55
Mike F 4 months ago
Jane is a bit©h.
23
#3
We were sort of that neighbor a few years ago. We were in the process of building our new house and had everything staked out before any of the groundwork started. I guess our neighbor thought we were too close to their property and had some city official come out to measure and in the process delayed our contractor.
Turns out we were 1 foot further away from their property than necessary and so, without even bothering to ask, our annoyed contractor picked up all the stakes and moved them 1 foot closer to the neighbor.
RxHumdinger,Valerie V/unsplashReport
Final score:
51
Lost Panda 4 months ago
I would have used the gained foot to add a large privacy fence
22
#4
It in was 2001, the neighbor wanted me to join an HOA. I had no interest. She contrived all these rules and insisted the neighborhood follow them. She would call the police, city inspectors, and everybody on anyone who didn’t follow her rules. She finally got me a warning from the city on my house needing paint. In her vision she wanted earth tones and encouraged me to change the color of my house from a light powder blue, to a tan. I painted the house PURPLE. I sold it as a purple house.
DukeBeekeepersKid,Molly the Cat/unsplashReport
Final score:
49
Nuku Nyara 4 months ago
I love this for you. Purple houses rock!
20
#5
A dorm neighbor was a huge d**k and didn’t care for anyone in the suite. So he did something like tip over his sub woofer, turn the music up and left for the weekend. The entire crew could feel it from our beds. I guess he didn’t know that RA’s have keys to the rooms. Maybe he also didn’t know that you could get ejected from dorms.
F**k you Bosco. You t**d.
GirlsPMYourSpreadAss,Andrej Lišakov/unsplashReport
Final score:
46
Mike F 4 months ago
Yeah, Bosco you’re a 💩.
16
#6
This happened years ago at my old apartment complex. My downstairs neighbor had a grill that they set up directly underneath our window and when they grilled the smoke would get into our house when the window was open. It was terrible. So I politely asked if they could move their grilled further away. They moved it but setup a fan to blow the smoke at my windows direction. That really got me steaming but the breaking point was when they were having a party I went to close my window the wife started shouting “that’s right b***h close your window!”.
Okay you started it.
I noticed their car had a paper license plate for several months that looked like it was printed out of computer paper and could tell it was faked so I reported it. I expected them to get a ticket for not having registration and that would’ve been fine. Guess what? An officer comes by and finds that it’s a stolen vehicle. One patrol car turns to three cars and they arrest the husband and cps takes their kids because they found d***s in the house. All because of a grill.
Final score:
45
Steve 4 months ago
I would have yelled down to her, “That’s right, b!tch, say goodbye to your husband and kids.”
15
#7
Had a weird neighbor. Friendly at first but slowly got colder and colder. They had the same landlord as us.
We were going to have a neighbors back yard party with us, the neighbors on both sides and the neighbors across the alley. Only the weird neighbor declined. Everyone was bringin something, beer from across the alley, sides from most of the others. We were hosting so it was our job to grill some brats and host in the back yard. Had the charcoal grill fired up and put some store bought wood chips on at the end to give the sausages a smokey flavor. I’m stepping out of the kitchen with a big tray of raw meat when a firefighter pokes his head over the back gate.
Firefighter: “Hi, we’ve had a smoke complaint that you are burning trash or yard waste?”
Me: “God I hope not, I’m not that bad of a cook.”
Firefighter: “May I come in and look at your fire?”
Me: “Uh, ok, let me put down this tray.”
I let the guy in, he looks at our charcoal grill.
Firefighter: “Did you put anything other than charcoal and lighter fluid in this?”
Me: “Yeah, some of these wood chips from the grocery store.”
Firefighter: “I hate to say this, but the city has an ordinance against any organic matter other than charcoal in grills.”
Everyone: “What.”
Firefighter: “Yeah, it’s a dumb law and almost never comes up unless you are really burning yard waste or if you have a neighbor who has it in for you. I won’t give you a citation, but I do have to stand here and watch to make sure the fire is completely extinguished before I go.”
Me: “So I can’t grill these dogs?”
Firefighter: “I’m afraid not.”
I proceed to take the tray of raw meat into the house, pop them in the oven to broil and come out to hose down my grill until the whole thing is cold and wet. The firefighter left with an apology and thanked me for not getting mad at him for the bad news. Only one person within six houses wasn’t there and I don’t think any of my guests called the FD on our own party.
Eveningangel,Vincent Keiman/unsplashReport
Final score:
43
Mike F 4 months ago
What a jerk.
14
#8
I had a neighbor who literally thought she owned the actual street and had some big beef with my landlord (she’d sued him several times for things that never made any sense). My landlord installed cameras because she took him to court so often and he needed proof that she was making stuff up.
She would mark down the time that I or any friends of mine arrived at or left my house and would sit in her driveway watching us.
Once, my landlord was going out of town and told me I was welcome to use his grill and have friends over (he lived next door to me). I did so, inviting maybe 5 friends, max, and we had a nice, mellow cook out. No loud music, no drunken debauchery or anything like that. True to form, the nosy neighbor called my landlord and told him that she was calling her lawyer and threatening legal action over our small party. Thankfully my landlord had footage of our gathering and deemed it all totally fine and completely within the bounds of what he’d invited me to do.
She sucked. F**k you, Sandra.
Violinist-Rich,Getty Images/unsplashReport
Final score:
40
Multa Nocte 4 months ago
Yeah, fuck you Sandra as well! Fuck all of you! (shakes fist angrily)
15
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#9
Stole the windshield wipers off of my car. I caught him on a security camera stealing them one night.
Next day I went over to his house and told that some low life stole my d**n wipers. The look he gave me was priceless, don’t think he liked me calling him a low life.
After I told him I had him on video he goes fine take them back and that was the last time I spoke to him.
snoozer854,Mark Boss/unsplashReport
Final score:
39
Mike F 4 months ago
I hope the OP put some Vaseline on the idiot’s windshield when he was done.
13
#10
Lived in a condo with concrete walls and high ceilings that had small gaps in top that allowed sound to pass through.
Cue new neighbor moving in, they have really nice furniture and seem okay.
Group of “friends” stay over and party pretty late during the weekend. No big deal, we like to party too.
Next week another group of “friends” stay over. No issue. She complains that our dogs bark too much. Understandable, as our rescue barks whenever someone is near our front door. I get dog collars to help ease the situation.
Then another group of “friends” stay over and decide to sing at all hours of the night and make noise during the weekday.
This happens 3-5x more times.
I sign up for AirBnB for an upcoming trip. Decided to look at who is hosting an AirBnB in our complex.
Surprise, surprise. Neighbor’s so-called “friends” are actually guests.
I threaten to report her if she didn’t get her guests in check after they took our parking space (people will want to shoot you for their spot).
She bitched me out, so I sent her AirBnB posting to the HOA. No more “friends” and she moved out and sold the condo within a month.
achilleshightops,Oberon Copeland @veryinformed.com/unsplashReport
Final score:
38
Nils Skirnir 4 months ago
Airbnb is a blight upon the earth. And plain evil
32
#11
I live in a townhouse that has an adjacent townhouse on either side. The neighbours on one side are absolutely fantastic.
About two years ago, there were renters on the other side, where the adult male living there was some sort of tradesman who regularly left for work at 4.40am. Whenever he left he would slam his front (metal) gate closed, which would regularly wake me and my 4 year old daughter. (The gate is only about 10 metres from our bedroom windows.)
I wrote a very polite note, explaining that it was a problem and asking them if they could please close their gate quietly. To his credit his started leaving via the other exit.
About a month later, it was becoming clear that my front lawn was increasingly covered in dog p*o, so I set up a webcam to see where it was coming from. Very quickly it became clear that these neighbours were regularly opening their gate, letting the dog out to do its business, and then return home, with no attempt to clear it up.
I approached him one early evening as the dog returned home from its defecation excursion, and (again very politely) asked him and his wife to stop letting the dog leave its business on my front lawn. They denied it, despite the fact that I had just caught the dog in the act, and told them that I had video evidence of what their dog was doing.
That absolute arsehole decided that every morning he left for work thereafter he would literally slam his front gate using all his strength. Some people are human garbage. Thankfully they moved out only a couple of months later.
EvilBosch,Marcel Eberle/unsplashReport
Final score:
32
tori Ohno 4 months ago
I would have scooped it up with a shovel and yeeted it at his front door.
15
#12
Growing up, we had a neighbor with an immaculate lawn and home. He kept it that way by flicking his cigarette butts over the fence and into our yard. To him, we were just white trash.
One day, my mom picked up ALL the butts from our yard and flung them back into his yard. Problem solved. He never did it again.
ShelteringInStPaul,Pawel Czerwinski/unsplashReport
Final score:
32
arthbach 4 months ago
I did this with dog dirt one time. A storm had blown down the fence between our gardens. It was their fence, and they were incredibly slow about getting it replaced. I realised their dog was being let out to ‘do his business’, he’d run through their long grass, and onto our short grass, leaving a ‘present’ behind. I started launching their dog’s present back into their garden. At one point, my husband noticed the neighbour had been watching me do this. The neighbour never said a word, but the following day work started on the fence and my garden was free of dog defecations.
15
#13
Not me, but what the woman who did live in our house did to her neighbors.
We moved into a house up a long shared driveway. Our neighbors are an elderly couple and she has dementia. Sometimes she doesn’t know where she is or what she is doing.
The new neighbor came over one sunday night to ask if he could put his wheely bin in the end of the drive so the rubbish truck could back up the drive to empty it as it would save him trying to move it to the road. I said that was no issue .
Turns out the old resident had her lawyers send the elderly couple a cease and desist letter over putting the rubbish bin in the driveway the first week after she moved in. No knock on the door and ask to stop or talking to them. Straight to get the lawyer involved.
We also found out she got upset about the neighbor with dementia wandering onto her driveway. Remembering she had dementia and didn’t know what she was doing. So she put a chain across the driveway to stop her wandering into her property.
The chain was fitted and hung at about 8 inches off the ground and the first time the elderly lady wandered over she tripped on it and fell face first onto the drive, knocking several teeth out and breaking her hip. She spent some time in hospital and before she even got out of hospital,the elderly neighbor had a knock on the door from the police with a trespass notice…………
All the neighbors were ecstatic when she left and we moved in. I met the woman once and she seemed Ok. But what sort of piece of s**t acts like that towards neighbors?
Amockeryofthecistern,Curated Lifestyle/unsplashReport
Final score:
31
Nuku Nyara 4 months ago
Poor lady with dementia and her husband taking care of her. No one deserves that kind of treatment from a nasty neighbor 😢
22
#14
Bought and moved into a condo and the previous owners apparently did not like cleaning. My third floor deck was green and growing things so went to my downstairs neighbors to let them know I wanted to power wash (note: nothing in condo bylaws prohibits this). First neighbor says of course, do whatever I need. But neighbor below me pitches a royal fit: how dare I inconvenience her? She’d have to move her furniture inside! Decks get dirty, that’s just how it goes. So I talk to the office (as does she) and she whines enough to get them to say no power washing but I can use a garden hose and scrub brush and (important later) soap. Well what would’ve been a 15 min power wash becomes an all day cleaning extravaganza of green soapy grossness going down to her deck. But is the neighbor satisfied? Oh no. She did not realize SOAP would be part of the deal. She is not pleased and come Monday morning is complaining to the office again. Thankfully they told her to shove it.
Runner up prize goes to the unknown neighbor who ran to the office as I was moving in to tell on me for having a doormat, which is, as I later learned, prohibited.
gingersnap9210,Vitaly Gariev/unsplashReport
Final score:
30
arthbach 4 months ago
A doormat is prohibited? What’s the logic behind that?
20
#15
Our neighbors CONSTANTLY complained for like 2 years about a tree in the back yard that looked like it was going to fall. They threatened to sue us if it did. Thing is, the tree was clearly on their property. Like by 5 feet.
Then one day during a strong storm, a huge, seemingly strong & healthy tree, smack dab in the middle of their front yard blows over onto their house. We went over the next day and helped them cut it up & remove it. They could barely make eye contact with us & never said thank you. They did shut up about the other tree though, that’s still standing to this day.
Prossdog,Marek Studzinski/unsplashReport
Final score:
29
OneHappyPuppy 4 months ago
Kudos for being the bigger person there, I wouldn’t have been
12
#16
I’m currently in a battle with my neighbor because he cut a bunch of old growth trees (older than the entire neighborhood by a good 50 years) down and moved in an absolutely hideous house, which is a huge issue because while we’re not an HOA, we are a “community character” neighborhood and there is an expectation that new builds at least attempt to look like existing homes in the neighborhood.
It turns out that he had no permit to remove the trees and that the building permit he had was invalid. There was a zoning hearing and the city council asked me to testify at it. I testified with facts, that he didn’t have a valid permit and that while there needs to be a 6′ encroachment between houses, right now there’s only a 4.5′ encroachment, and that if he adds a porch like he wanted to, his new house would actually encroach onto our property line and basically be up against my kitchen window.
When they opened it up to public comment, almost fifty of my neighbors testified that the house doesn’t meet standards. At the end, the council moved to immediately revoke his dodgy building permit, which is something that hasn’t been done in 45 years. He’s now left with a little under a week to move that house back to its original lot or submit major design changes.
In addition to threatening to sue everyone who spoke out against him, he now posted on social media that he’s been asking the public for “dirt” on me and my husband. Thank God that his post has only had five comments and they’re all telling him to either stop or that we’re decent people.
I’m still half-expecting to wake up on Monday and find my tires slashed.
MadameBurner,Andy Quezada/unsplashReport
Final score:
29
nm 4 months ago
Cctv cameras yesterday.
9
#17
I was at this neighbourhood treasure hunt when I was around 11. It was in a big park with lot of trees and rocks, parking lot and a community centre next to it. Me and my neighbours kid both figured out final clue and sprinted towards the finish, only for me to ‘accidentally’ bumped by his dad and fall.
Still salty about it till this day.
f__h,Annie Spratt/unsplashReport
Final score:
28
Mike F 4 months ago
What an @sshole, to do that to a kid.
16
#18
When we bought our place, my husband went next door to introduce himself to the new neighbor. Mr. C led with “I don’t like dogs or children, y’all better be quiet!” and it didn’t get better from there. (He also took down the no trespassing sign that the previous owners had put up. That sign only faced Mr. C’s property.)
The pettiest thing he did was probably the day he cut our cable because he thought the provider didn’t bury it quickly enough. (Mind you, it was entirely on our land.)
Or maybe the day he had a s**t fit because the movers took down a fence post to get their truck in, and inadvertently left it on Mr. C’s lawn for 3-4 hours until they got the truck back out.
Perhaps it was the morning that he came banging on the door at 7:30 am, like there was some emergency, and had the gall to yell at my husband because he answered the door shirtless. The “emergency” was that the children walked to the bus stop on the right of way in front of his house. It’s a dirt road, no sidewalk, and the other side of the road has a ditch and woods – not suitable for pedestrians. Mr. C made threatening noises about “teaching the girls a lesson” about staying out of his yard. And my husband lost.his.religion. Informed the old fart that the right of way extends 40 feet from the center of the road, per Georgia law, and that the old man better NEVER, EVER, EVER f**k with his children.
The only other time he ever spoke to me was to complain about the noise from a cookout we’d had. I told him that if he continued, I would have my timber cut, but only that between his house and the highway. Then we’d talk about noise…
50EffingCabbages,Andy Quezada/unsplashReport
Final score:
28
Crystalwitch60 4 months ago
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#19
My neighbhor would put on house music at loud volume (for his stereo) then leave for the night. It was mildly annoying in certain parts of my home.
So I bought some cerwin vega 15s, and played the same song back. Literally the same song, over and over and over..while I went on vacation for 4 days.
I’m not sure who was the bigger d**k but we both stopped doing it after that.
Later when he was throwing a party he asked if he could use my speakers cause “they loud af”.
Syst0us,Jayesh Patil/unsplashReport
Final score:
27
Mike F 4 months ago
I don’t know if anyone is familiar with Cerwin Vega speakers but they are like the Timex watches, they take a licking and keep on ticking. They are brutes.
14
#20
We had a small dirt driveway in front of our lawn, which was shaded by our giant tree. The neighbors liked to park there because they always had people over and apparently it was too difficult for them to park near their house. When I got my horse trailer (gooseneck, so think loong) it was a lot easier for me to park in the front so I could just load up and go. One day I come out and see that my tire is slashed on the trailer. I looked up and they were laughing.
Joke was on them. They thought I could buy a new tire. Buuuut I couldn’t, so that trailer didn’t move for months until I could.
anon,Charles Pickrell/unsplashReport
Final score:
27
Philly Bob 4 months ago
And suddenly, several engines sputtered and died. Sugar is a gas additive NOT recommnded by auto manufaturers.
6
#21
About 10 years ago had a neighbor scream at me because I accidentally went on to his property a little bit when I was mowing the lawn. A grown man yelling at a 11 year old over a bit of cut grass…
anon,Andrej Lišakov/unsplashReport
Final score:
26
Wendy 4 months ago
Was your neighbour Hank Hill? … I’ll show myself out …
2
#22
Lived in a neighborhood for about a year that was also home to one of the city council members. This b***h would send notices to everyone for anything she didn’t like and she’d try and sway the council to crack down on those she deemed the “worst” offenders. We earned a spot at the top of her shitlist because we put our garbage cans at the curb in the afternoon rather than the evening. None of us were going out after dark and dealing with rats springing out of the cans like tiny, flea-ridden missiles.
We didn’t stop because legally, we weren’t doing anything wrong. She was a stickler for making the neighborhood look fabulous even though most of the houses were in s****y condition and as mentioned earlier, the entire city had (probably still has) a really bad rat problem. So every week, we’d get a new notice from her, though she always tried to say it was from the council as a collective. Yes, she hand delivered that s**t.
Final score:
26
arthbach 4 months ago
Why wasn’t she given a ‘cease and desist’ letter? This sounds like harassment.
13
#23
I used to live in a townhouse community. We had assigned parking – two parking spaces per unit. I only had one vehicle so I only needed one space and didn’t care if people parked in the extra spot I wasn’t using.
But then the neighbor across the street started using their two spots, and BOTH of my parking spots when they had guests over – and they had guests over 3-4 nights a week. I’d be at the grocery store, come back, and this a*****e has his buddies in my parking spots, leaving me nowhere to park. I’d have to go over there and knock on the door and tell them to move and of course they always took their good old sweet time going to move their cars.
So finally I got sick of it. I came home and their guests had parked in both my spots again. So I just pulled me car horizontally right on up behind them so there was no way they could get out. I made it so they had to come knock on my door for a change when they were ready to leave and I took my time getting out there to move my car.
They didn’t use my parking spots again after that.
Final score:
26
Philly Bob 4 months ago
I’d have had a nice long tub soak, possibly a 2 to 3 hour nap… then maybe… MAYBE moved my car!
4
#24
My upstairs neighbor (in an apartment) was peeved that I contacted the office about him and his loud wife. I had no contact with them directly. So this grown man waited until I took my 15 year old, blind, dying of cancer dog outside to relieve himself, and he came out to loudly bark and growl at my dog to scare him since he couldn’t see. Luckily, my dog didn’t care, but what a petty thing to do.
Ok_Eye_3511,Simone Dalmeri/unsplashReport
Final score:
25
웅장한 거북이 🇰🇷🇰🇭 4 months ago
Does he still have teeth? If so, why?
13
#25
My college roommate and I had an ant problem. They got all over the trash bin, so we moved it from the garage to the yard in front of the house. Our neighbor left us a note saying it was unsightly and to please remove it. I handled the situation by putting a sticky Christmas bow on top of it to make it look nicer. My roommate was horrified (by me) and took it off. She then explained to the neighbor why we had it outside.
I’m not sure which one of us was pettiest – me or the neighbor.
anon,Sagar Chauhan/unsplashReport
Final score:
24
Robin Roper 4 months ago
Love the bow and would have changed the trash bin decor to coordinate with each holiday season.
7
#26
He’s salty about a land survey that was done decades before I moved in. We have a decent neighborly relationship in general, but when I moved in he tried to convince me that a whole section of my yard was his. Fortunately, the previous owner had warned me he might try this.
Now we rent the house out. Every time a new tenant moves in, he walks the property with them and tries to move the property line again. Very petty, and so consistent!
pachatacha,Karen Massari/unsplashReport
Final score:
24
Tara L. 4 months ago (edited)
Our neighbors tried that when we moved in. I’ve got no time for BS & hate liars & thieves so I asked them straight up “why are you lying to me?” They tried backtracking but I wasn’t having it. I fking hate liars. I’m polite to them now but not friendly. A few years later the husband made a comment about me not being friendly & I asked him “why should I when out first interaction was you lying to me & trying to steal my property?” Shut him up.
13
#27
We had our lot assessed and they put stakes in the ground on the property line. She pulled them up and moved them two inches over. It was very noticeable because they also made a small spray painted line along the stakes. I guess she didn’t think we would notice that the stakes were no longer on the line.
discostud1515,Annie Spratt/unsplashReport
Final score:
23
JL 4 months ago
For two inches, why even bother trying?
3
#28
We were 6 working adults- mid20s- in a LARGE 4 bedroom house. We had a dinner party one night in the summer, ending maybe 11pm- no loud music, no wild drinking, maybe some folks out on the back deck smoking and talking. This woman and her husband came over at 8am to give us a talk about how it was a nice Christian neighborhood and we needed to be mindful of the families.
This was an older development so the houses AND yards were large, and far back from the street. The neighbors on either side of us had no issues, and one would frequently share baked goods from his wife, or we’d chat with his teenage kids out front, but this b***h across the street started complaining about us: “coming home at all hours, closing car doors” (one roommate was a manager at a restaurant and the rest of us were all 7/8-4/5 workers), “talking with the windows open” (summer, no AC), “running a used car lot” (3 working, registered cars in the driveway, 3 parked on the street, just like our neighbors with teens). Just all sorts of utter b******t.
The icing on the cake was two back-to-back frivolous calls which were blatant lies and tied to her. My boyfriend and I returned from a 2 week long camping trip, parked our camper in front of our house to unload it, began the work, and decided to finish in the morning. We were getting ready to hitch up and take it to storage when the police code people pulled up- they were there to check on an abandoned camper matching the description of ours, that had been reported to have been there over a week, “in obvious disrepair”. We showed them we had in fact only gotten home around 8 the evening before and obviously the vehicle was licensed, registered, and in working order, and was in fact about to be taken back to storage. They apologized and we asked it be noted that we had a neighbor who repeatedly called in frivolous claims on us, and they said they would. Within a week, around 1130pm, there’s a knock at the door and amusingly enough we’d all been home all night- even restaurant working roommate who opened the door- I’d been asleep for at least an hour. The officers asked my roommate who answered the door, in their pj’s, very obviously having just been asleep if we were having a party. “No?” They’d had a call about loud music, cars, people, drinking, etc. But they’d been sitting outside our completely dark house for half an hour or so and had dispatch verify the address. The police were baffled, but unfortunately for b****y neighbor lady, Restaurant Manager roommate did not suffer fools- they very firmly, respectfully, and (most importantly) persuasively told the police about the constant mysterious, frivolous police complaints from one of our neighbors. He explained that obviously he wasn’t *sure* it was the same person, but he laid out a list of all the complaints, and gave them the address of the neighbor who we knew it was, one officer went back to the car, the other officer made small talk, and then when the second officer came back he apologized, because they obviously had a clear pattern of harassment and encouraged roommate to file a complaint- which he did. A few weeks later I saw a police vehicle parked across the street near b***h’s house and we never had another visit, although I moved before the next summer.
Final score:
23
tori Ohno 4 months ago
I think after the second frivolous complaint you should be able to press harassment charges and get a cease and desist. It’s a waste of police time to deal with that kind of bad behavior and pettiness.
4
#29
We were having a fire in our back yard and our neighbors called the fire Department saying we started a fire and it got out of hand. (It was a small pit fire) so the FD rushed 2 rescues to our house just to put out a little fire…. Yes our neighbors got fined for waisting the FD’s time.
Final score:
23
Laura Deckers 4 months ago
Time waisting…download-3…b00fcb.jpg
2
#30
We lived intown when I was a kid and had a neighbor who owned a lot that spanned across the block, house on one side, huge maple trees and such through to the other street. They had a solid fence that was about 6.5 feet high around the entire perimeter and were adamant that no one should enter their yard at all. Fair enough, but our driveway was adjacent and we had a basketball hoop on the garage and every so often the ball would bounce over the fence. I would shimmy between the garage and fence and pull myself over, toss the ball back, and then climb the fence supports on the other side to get back. I was always careful not to damage anything.
Until the husband, who was older and whose kids were grown, saw me and started running out chasing after me every time he caught a glimpse of me out the window. He would watch for me. A couple of times he was working outside, hid nearby, and jumped out and grabbed me, pulling me into his house, and ejecting me out the front door. He eventually started bringing the ball inside his house if he happened to see it go over, and refused to give it back unless we walked around the entire block, knocked on his door, politely asked for the ball, and subjected ourselves to a berating lecture and apologized. I was just a 7 year old kid that wanted his ball back.
A few years later he wrote a 5 page handwritten letter to my parents, sent through the mail mind you, about how they were incompetent as parents and had failed to raise us properly.
My dad was livid at this point after years of strained relations, the ball wasn’t the only friction point. He snapped a bit, stormed into the garage cursing loudly, grabbed a sledgehammer, and was about to bust down a large section of the fence. I calmed him down and talked him out of it.
The next day, once I’d read the letter myself, I wished that I had just let him tear it down. I also had a couple of encounters with the neighbor on the heels of this incident where he was extremely insulting to me.
To compensate for this, I began sneaking out to the corner of the fence next to their house late at night and shooting out an exterior light that was way up under the 2nd floor eaves and would require a very tall extension ladder to reach. I continued to do this every time I saw the light bulb had been replaced for some time until eventually he gave up on replacing it.
I never told anyone that it was me shooting the bulb that was the cause. He suspected me, I’m sure, but never caught me nor had any proof.
He died of a heart attack a few years later and his wife sold the house a short while after since she couldn’t take care of it herself. There were a few times where I saw her struggling with something and went over to lend her a hand. She reluctantly allowed me to do so. One time, she fell down and injured herself outside. I hopped over and picked her up, now a strong 13 year old, and helped her over to a chair before going into her house to get her cordless phone so she could call her son for assistance. I sat with her until he got there to be sure she would be OK, and we had a heartfelt exchange, a sincere humam connection. She was so thankful that I was nearby and had heard her cry out.
That moment washed away any resentment I might have still held despite the conflict largely ending when her husband passed. I learned a lot about people that day as I looked at this frail woman who was clearly overwhelmed and frightened at the idea of living alone. I could see in her eyes that she was seeing me in a different light as well. I only saw her outside briefly a few times after that, though she smiled and gave me a little wave each time, and I would wave and smile back. She moved in with her son’s family and we moved into a new house soon after. When I heard a few years later that she had passed, I felt gratitude that we were at least able to have that moment together, however late it had come.
Final score:
22
Sylvia Baker 4 months ago
He was not a nice man but you were a nice kid
4
#31
We caught my neighbour leaning out his upstairs window throwing open ink cartridges at our washing. He was barking mad and a few years ago got sectioned after trying to k**l his wife. I’m pretty sure he also staged a fake home invasion for insurance money at one point. I am also fairly certain it was him that was shooting my cats (2 had airgun pellets embedded in their heads).
Final score:
22
Nuku Nyara 4 months ago
😡😡😡I would be shooting his azz for shooting my cats😡😡😡
16
#32
Spent thousands of dollars removing 2 very large trees from our property. About a month later the neighbor sent us certified mail claiming one of the trees we did not cut down, was not healthy. Of course this was not true because had all the trees inspected before removal. Because they sent us certified mail it forced us to get an umbrella insurance policy to cover the event of the tree falling on their house. They never had one face to face conversation with us about it.
When the f**k did people stop acting like neighbors?
PacoMahogany,Getty Images/unsplashReport
Final score:
22
Heather 4 months ago
People quit acting like neighbors years ago. Luckily, I have several Boomer neighbors and we all help each other out like the old days!
13
#33
Mine was a downstairs neighbor and they would constantly switch the drier plug to our outlet to charge our unit for drying their clothes.
Notsodarknight,Kelly Sikkema/unsplashReport
Final score:
21
Sally Moen 4 months ago
That’s when you head to your nearest hardware store to purchase a locking outlet cover.
19
#34
Called DCYF on us a week before Christmas when I was 32 weeks pregnant with my youngest. Apparently my husband bringing a 6 pack of beer home means he was caring for our then 3 year old and 18 month old drunk. The case was closed a week after the youngest was born. And yes that old miserable p***k still lives across the road from us.
Final score:
21
#35
Poisoned my cat and a lot of other neighborhood cats. I still can’t get over him, he was a great cat. I loved him so much… that f*****g witch! Also called the cops on my family about a septic tank or something instead of coming to our door and talking about it like a person. (There was nothing wrong with the septic tank).
Final score:
21
Heather 4 months ago
Buy some Liquid A$$ and strategically place it near the house-they will think their sewer line is the cause. Excellent way to really get back at them.
3
#36
Last summer our neighbor complained that our maple tree (the only tree in our entire yard) was dying and he contacted his insurance company to make sure we’d have to pay damages if it ever fell over onto his garage. We had an expert out and it was dying so we sadly chose to have it cut down. During this fall he got his leaf blower out every single day and blew the leaves from his yard into ours even though new have now have no trees.
Jokes on him, we just signed a contract for a fence. For our dog, not out of pettiness. But it’s a nice bonus.
nmkelly6,Callum Hill/unsplashReport
Final score:
21
Lee Gilliland 4 months ago
Please don’t tell me this guy was named Steve. Steve cut down all his trees and tried to get everyone to cut down their, called the cops on every neighbor whose leaves were in his yard for littering, and would blow his leaves to exactly one foot beyond our easement (three houses share the driveway) so we had to do all of ours and his to the street.
3
#37
When I was a kid, my brother and I were playing catch in the yard. Our ball ended up in the neighbor’s yard (nowhere near the house like 5 feet into his grass) and I went to get it. He comes running outside yelling saying “If I ever see you on my grass again, I’m calling the cops.” No kidding. The whole get off my yard kid thing.
Actuaryba,Ben Hershey/unsplashReport
Final score:
19
Nikki Sevven 4 months ago
My brother and I were playing frisbee and it inadvertently landed in the neighbor’s lawn, about a meter off the street. My brother went to get it, and the neighbor yelled at him, “Get off my fücking lawn!” This neighbor had a torrid love affair with his lawn. He liked to step into the street and just look at it. It was weird. One day, he inadvertently stepped onto our lawn, whereupon my mother yelled out the window, “Get off my fücking lawn!” Priceless.
#38
Neighbor jumped the fence and opened our back gate, letting the dogs out. Thankfully our dogs stayed in the yard, but the roommates dog disappeared for hours. The guy left a note on the door saying we were bad pet owners because we left out dogs out all day and didn’t deserve to have them. All day was the 6 hours a day I was working at the time. We didn’t know it was him until we started talking to other neighbors and one checked their security camera which caught him going up to our door, then jumping our fence.
Sylvia Baker 4 months ago
Realistically? 6 hours a day out in the yard is not okay. What about bad weather? What if it’s hot as hell and the water’s all gone? Lots could happen…. they bark and someone throws something nasty in the yard?
#39
My neighbor parked all of his cars on the street instead of in his garage and his driveway because he hated me for some unknown reason. I lived with my grandmother at the time, he straight up lied to her and told her that I was parking on his grass (which I wasn’t; I’ve popped two tires on curbs in my life and had no intention to risk doing so again by parking up on the curb) and blocking his driveway. She literally screamed at me for “being rude” multiple times even though my car was parked legally according to the city codes.
So anyway, he parked all four of his cars on the street instead of on his property, which meant everyone from the other two houses on the street had to park like a half mile away (parking is pretty limited and everyone except this a*****e neighbor had the tiniest driveways). He did it to inconvenience me, and really just inconvenienced everyone else because jokes on him, my grandparents were out of town that week and I could park in our driveway anyway.
#40
My neighbors play loud music and yell at each other quite frequently. Recently they realized they can turn the stereo into a PA and now scream obscenities at each other through the microphone. Lovely.
Nuku Nyara 4 months ago
Report them to the police for disturbing the peace.
#41
Called CPS on my family because we took a family vacation with our two older kids and let our youngest with special behavioral needs and violent outbursts spend the week with my mom. They did movies, swimming pools, children’s museums, a food truck festival, and a fireworks show together in that time. He had a blast, and the rest of us got some badly needed respite. Neighbor thought it was blatant favoritism and reported us.
